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The Mysterious "Ukulele Echo Device" From the 1920's

Posted by Shane Speal on February 1, 2016 at 2:45pm in Feature Articles

In our relentless pursuit of strange and unusual tone for cigar box guitars and other instruments, we were floored when we tripped over this little piece of history:  The Echo Uke featuring the Ukulele Echo Device from the 1920's.

"Echo Uke" was a brand name of the Hawaiian Mahogany Company, a Honolulu ukulele manufacturer in the 1920s. Their ukuleles were sold in Hawaii as well as distributed on the mainland. Jules M. Sahlein of San Francisco sold Echo Ukes under the Y'Ke'Ke brand name and Schireson Brothers of Los Angeles sold them under the Mai Kai brand.

Some Echo Ukes include a special device apparently intended to add to the instrument's tone. This "Echo Device" was one or two strips of thin metal attached to the inside of the top of ukulele directly opposite to where the bridge is mounted.
Note: This is the same philosophy used by Ozark guitar builder, Ed Stilley when he placed springs and metal objects inside the guitar bodies.  See our article about Stilley here for more info.

The photograph above shows the echo device on a piece of the top from a badly damaged Y'Ke'Ke Echo Uke. The top and bottom photographs on the right are from a concert-sized Echo Uke and a soprano "Pele" model Echo Uke. These photos were taken by laying a small mirror inside of the ukuleles and catching the echo device's reflection through the ukulele's soundhole.

The labels of some Echo Ukes contain the claim "Echo Device Patented" but they list no patent number. Searches at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office have yet to locate the patent.


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Replies

  • Primitive Acoustics January 2, 2017 at 12:08pm
    I used sections from an old bandsaw blade that I thinned down with my sander to make my tines. I thought mounting them on the underside of the top, the end block and the back (like the original design) gave the best sound. Every box is going to sound different and you may need to experiment with different tines and placement ideas to find what sounds best for you. Gitty's should work, other sources include tines from old metal rakes, bandsaw and coping saw blades, street cleaner brush tines, electricians snake (fish tape), windshield wiper blade cores, bobby pins, etc. Spring steel is best in my opinion.
  • Paul Craig October 6, 2016 at 3:50pm

    One of my neighbors trew away a leaf rake with the small thin tines. Looks like a build in my future. Haha

    • Gordon Cooper > Paul Craig January 1, 2017 at 10:56pm

      Would the Kalimba/Marimba tines that CB Gitty sells work in this application? If so, where would I attach them? 

      • Ron "Oily" Sprague > Gordon Cooper January 2, 2017 at 1:47am
        Underside of the soundboard seems like the first place to put them. If you link the top to the bottom with a tone block or tone post beneath the bridge, then attached to the bottom would also work well.
        • Gordon Cooper > Ron "Oily" Sprague January 13, 2017 at 11:13pm

          I think next month I'll order some kalimba tines, make up some pairs of tines and take some acoustic measurements to see if the presence of the paired tines has a resonant frequency that can be tuned. I imagine it might be possible to build an analog style spring reverb box into the cbg as well. 

          • Gordon Cooper > Gordon Cooper January 15, 2017 at 11:32pm

            A quick search with Google Patent shows a number of patents for mechanical amplification schemes. It overlaps with analog guitar pedal spring delay lines as well. Given a long cigar box, a spring reverb unit could be built into the CBG! 

  • Primitive Acoustics April 11, 2016 at 12:00pm
    This is an interesting idea. I'm building a Uke now so think I will give it a try.
    I've been experimenting with an old bandsaw blade on another project so I think I'll start with it and see how it goes.
  • CJWilky February 25, 2016 at 1:49pm

    Hi, whilst restoring an old Windsor zither banjo recently I came across this showing an astounding array of springs, well worth a look.

    http://brightonbanjos.com/windsor-zither-banjo-repair/

    I'm currently starting out on my first build and got suckered into going for a 3 or 4 string oil can version, piezo driven, and wonder if some coiled springage inside might be worth checking out on my second try.

    • Jim Morris > CJWilky February 25, 2016 at 3:43pm

      Wow! That is mind blowing! Plus a hollow/ resonating neck chamber! I've done hollow necks on mountain dulcimers but not with the openings in the fret board. So much to experiment with and alas,so little time. 

      • Paul Craig > Jim Morris February 25, 2016 at 10:50pm

        I've heard that Billy Gibbon's Les Paul signature model has a chambered neck to keep the weight down. Makes me wonder how well a chambered neck stays straight through time with all that stress. Trussrod helps, but even they can only do so much. Maybe the chambers are small or the necks are bigger than normal. Interesting to say the least.

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